What happened at the Well Dressed festival in Derby?

On February 22, 2025 – 1,000 years (give or take a few months) after the second Viking invasion of Derby of 924AD – the city again found itself invaded, this time by folklore fanatics who descended on QUAD, the city’s cultural hub.

They were there for a day-long festival branded ‘Well Dressed’, whose remit was ‘exploring the curious folklore of the Peak District and beyond’, through a packed programme of musical performances, talks, film screenings, workshops, and Morris dancing.

Russ Beresford, the man behind Well Dressed Photo: Richard Bradley The person responsible for marshalling these forces is Russ Beresford. Russ’s career in music management has taken him far and wide, yet he remains rooted in Derby, the city where he was born and bred.

‘I travel all around the world for work’, he tells me. ‘I’m all over the country every week – I’ve got offices down in Stroud and London, so I’m in London a lot. But my base is still very much Derby.’

Putting together February’s Well Dressed event involved utilising the knowledge and experience gained through his day job, as well as drawing on his passion for local history and folklore.

‘That was fostered from my family I guess,’ he explains. ‘My dad and his side of the family have always been very keen on Derby history. Over recent years I’ve developed my own interest in the weirder, more curious side of Derbyshire and the Peak District.

‘My big interests are sci fi, horror films and pop culture. So, I was always drawn to the weirder, curious, stranger side of the Peak District as well as stories involving folklore and the weird places and people of the Peaks.’

Russ has noted a growing interest in recent years in this subject, and an increasing number of festivals centred around this theme.

‘I’ve seen events similar to this pop up around the country,’ he reveals. ‘Wales, Cornwall, London… But I’ve not really seen anything celebrating the folklore of Derbyshire and the wider Peak District in the same way – with art, music, film, and performance’.

This is especially maddening given Derbyshire’s rich seam when it comes to folklore and traditions.

Perhaps that’s a fault of the Derbyshire character, I suggest; we’re maybe a bit too humble for our own good sometimes, and not necessarily great at celebrating and promoting such events and beliefs, which are often unique to our county.

‘I’m in agreement’, Russ responds. ‘I think there’s so much here to talk about. We should be shouting about it louder and a bit wider.’

Having put together a few small-scale events and published a zine under the banner ‘Well Dressed’ (a punning reference to one of Derbyshire’s best-known traditions – well dressing), Russ got talking with a friend who works at QUAD and the idea was broached of a similar day-long arts and music-based event honouring local folklore.

‘QUAD were incredible to work with, and super helpful,’ acknowledges Russ. ‘They bent over backwards to make all my crazy ideas of how I wanted to use the spaces a reality and didn’t shy away from some of the weird things I wanted to do.’

Russ brought his friend Sian Morrell on board to oversee the visual side of the day, coordinating the projections, graphic design and screen printing.

Having myself traversed Derbyshire over the past decade to document the county’s many weird and wonderful customs and traditions and written about them in Derbyshire Life since 2020, I was delighted when Russ got in touch during the planning stages asking me to participate in the day.

I put together an hour-long illustrated talk about Derbyshire customs, as well as a digital exhibition of my photographs of various local events, which scrolled on a large monitor in QUAD’s foyer throughout the day.

My talk was delivered an hour into the event – after Wirksworth’s T’Owd Man Morris dance team had kicked things off outside the venue – which meant that afterwards I could just hang out like a punter and enjoy the rest of the day.

I sat in on a modelmaking workshop by artist and folktale collector Joe Winstanley, who I profiled in February’s Derbyshire Life.

Paperfolding workshop with Joe Winstanley of Studio Skai Photo: Richard Bradley Joe talked participants through creating their own model of a Peak District hill through the medium of paper-folding. The exercise was thoughtfully constructed around the journey of life and Joe additionally shared experiences from his own life, from having grown up in ‘the best place in the world’ (Hathersage) to some of his own struggles.

As the narrative of the life story arc progressed, the paper folds became more complex, reflecting the fact life becomes more complicated as we emerge from childhood and make our way in the world.

Participants were invited to think about similar elements of their own life stories as the workshop, either in their own heads or sharing if they felt comfortable. A particularly nice touch was that the workshop was delivered to a soothing backdrop of birdsong recordings.

Jennifer Reid delivers a clog dancing workshop Photo: Richard Bradley Running concurrently downstairs was another workshop with a very different energy, as Jennifer Reid schooled participants in the art of Lancashire clog dancing.

Alex Johnson and Dee Johnson – friends who share a surname, but aren’t related – delivered an illustrated talk about a place dear to their hearts, Minninglow Hill, an ancient sacred site close to the High Peak Trail.

Dee was keen to puncture the attitude of Victorian archaeologists who looked down on the people who constructed these sites as ‘primitive’, emphasising that in the fractious and complex world of the 2020s, perhaps there was something we could learn from their way of life.

I can’t have been the only person who walked out of that dark city-centre cinema space inspired to get out into the Derbyshire countryside and revisit some of the county’s sacred sites.

For now, though, the next best thing was to head downstairs into QUAD’s gallery, where artist T & The Creatures In The Woods had created an impressive recreation of a Derbyshire stone circle out of paper, displayed alongside folksy animal head masks, all bathed in an eerie sunset orange glow.

As with the Minninglow conversation, the overall effect was transcendent, transforming the clinical setting of the blank urban gallery space into a rustic fantasia.

Alex Johnson (left) and Dee Johnson (right) deliver a talk on Minninglow Hill Photo: Richard Bradley Next on the bill was a screening of Arcadia, the 2017 feature film directed by Paul Wright. The film is composed solely of archive film footage of rural Britain from the BFI vaults dating from the early 1900s onwards, dextrously intercut to a soundtrack by Portishead’s Adrian Uttley and Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory.

The result transcends the sum of its parts, presenting a breathtakingly radical portrait of the heart and soul of the nation.

One especially effective sequence melded footage of 1920s Morris dancers, naked 1960s hippies at the Isle of Wight Festival, and 1990s ravers, all cavorting to a soundtrack of abstract techno – a vision of the country far removed from the national stereotype of buttoned-up Brits.

Given the focus of the day, it was especially heartening to see some wonderful Kodachrome-tinted 1960s footage of the Castleton Garland, one of Derbyshire’s most mysterious and ancient customs, weaved into the narrative.

There was simply so much going off throughout the day that it was hard to attend everything. Myself and Joe Winstanley, with whom I was sharing a lift back home to Sheffield, were flagging somewhat by around eight o’clock, so ended up missing the last few acts.

Russ did a better job, getting to most elements, so I asked for his take on the parts I missed.

In a short in conversation session he conducted with Beth of Sheffield Folklore Society, Russ found a kindred spirit wanting to promote the folklore of the area.

Spaceship Mark, the ‘Northern representative’ of the Cornwall-based Stone Club, gave a talk about his Stone Reports – short films about his travels finding obscure stones and stone circles.

‘The feedback I had from his talk was how inspiring it was,’ reveals Russ. ‘He inspired people to want to go hunting for stones themselves.’

R. Loomes’ musical set consisted of ‘dark, gloomy, droney, folk-tinged guitar pieces with beautiful ethereal vocals’ according to Russ.

‘Rachael was born in Derby, her family are from Derby, but she’s Sheffield-based, I think she grew up more up the north of the Peaks, towards Sheffield,’ says Russ. ‘She just seemed to fit the event wonderfully – I’m a huge fan.’

Meanwhile, headliners Folklore Tapes provided ‘a bespoke and hugely visual performance about Derbyshire, using footage and samples of old Derbyshire traditions, like well dressings, folk dancing, and Shrovetide football.’

Tickets for Well Dressed sold out in advance and feedback shared by attendees suggest a great time was had by all.

Russ professes to being ‘overwhelmed’ by the response, whose genesis was ‘a little idea based on a strange little passion of mine.’

Talks are already in place for a sequel at QUAD around the same time next year, with smaller-scale events between now and then.

‘It could be anything from a storytelling evening in a side room of a pub, to putting on a straightforward gig under the Well Dressed banner,’ concludes Russ. ‘I think there’s going to be a lot throughout this year.’

If you’d like information on future Well Dressed activities, follow @well_dressed_derbyshire on Instagram.